Arts Offerings from Classics to the Cutting Edge Available Through Pitt-Bradford's Spectrum Series

The fall semester of the Spectrum Series at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will bring an edgy film writer, a novelist, a sculptor and more to the university and the community.

Events are open to the public and free unless otherwise noted. For more information or tickets, contact the Bromeley Family Theater box office at 814-362-5113 or showtix@pitt.edu.

Spectrum, the longest running of the university’s three arts series, will open its theater season Sept. 19 with a rollicking look at Shakespeare, the first in a three-part celebration of the Bard of Avon’s 450th birthday. Tickets for all of the stage productions are $6 for the public and $2 for all students.

The Improvised Shakespeare Company will create a Shakespearean masterpiece right before your eyes at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19 in the Bromeley Family Theater in Blaisdell Hall. Each of the players has brushed up on his “thees” and “thous” for an evening of off-the-cuff comedy using the language and themes of the great playwright.

Improvised Shakespeare has been named Chicago’s best improv group by both the Chicago Reader and the Chicago Examiner, has been honored by the Chicago Improv Foundation and has received a New York Nightlife Award for “Best Comedic Performance by a Group.” For more information, visit improvisedshakespeare.com. Due to its improvised nature, this show may contain some adult content.

The Shakespeare 450 celebration will continue with a Division of Communication and the Arts presentation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” directed by Dr. Kevin Ewert, at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20-22 and 2 p.m. Nov. 23 in the Studio Theater in Blaisdell Hall. This night in the woods is a riotous anarchy of multiple plots: impatient and interchangeable lovers, vengeful but bumbling fairies, and a group of rude manual laborers. Tickets are $6 for the public and $2 for all students.

The Spectrum writers’ series begins with screenwriter and filmmaker Sam Zalutsky at noon Oct. 9 in the Mukaiyama University Room of the Frame-Westerberg Commons. Zalutsky is a creator, director and producer for the comedy web series “The Go-Getters.” For his first feature, the psychological horror film “You Belong to Me,” he was shortlisted for the Independent Spirit Award’s Someone to Watch Award. For more information, visit sazamproductions.com.

Novelist Karen Gettert Shoemaker will visit at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in the Mukaiyama University Room. She has published stories in Prairie Schooner, the London Independent, the South Dakota Review, Fugue, Kalliope and other literary magazines. Her stories and poems have been anthologized in “A Different Plain: Contemporary Nebraska Fiction Writers,” “Times of Sorrow/Times of Grace,” “An Untidy Season,” and “Nebraska Presence: An Anthology of Poetry.” For more information, visit her website, www.karenshoemaker.com.

The first Spectrum visual artist will be Ron Geibel, whose exhibition “Picture Perfect” will be in the KOA Art Gallery in Blaisdell Hall from Nov. 7 through Dec. 5. A gallery talk and reception will be held at noon Nov. 7 in the KOA Speer Electronics Lobby of Blaisdell Hall. Influenced by the notion of the upper middle-class American family, ceramic artist Geibel investigates and explores the intersections of the public and private spheres. For more information, visit rongeibel.com.

Visitors can enjoy both Geibel’s show and the music of chamber music ensemble Gibbs and Main at noon Nov. 13 in the KOA Lobby. Gibbs and Main is five professional musicians dedicated to performing classical masterpieces side by side with Latin, pop and contemporary repertoire. The ensemble ventures well outside the traditional “chamber” of chamber music, bringing a passion of performance into schools, churches, libraries, bars, bistros and coffee shops. For more information, visit gibbsandmain.com.

Pitt-Bradford students in the Vocal Arts Ensemble, directed by John Liberatore, will present their first concert of the year, featuring holiday music, at noon Dec. 2 in the KOA Lobby. The group will also perform at noon April 14, 2015, in the KOA Lobby.

For disability-related needs, contact the Office of Disability Resources at 814-362-7609 or clh71@pitt.edu. Pitt-Bradford Arts is on Facebook and Instagram.

Pictured, members of the Improvised Shakespeare Company performs in an impromptu masterpiece in the style of the master.

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